As large as DC Water’s Northeast Boundary Tunnel (NEBT) is, it isn’t just a feat of engineering. It’s also a feat of collaboration. Partnerships have been established among DC Water, the tunnel construction team, and the communities the tunnel will serve when it comes online. DC Water is sensitive to how its construction impacts local businesses and residents along the alignment and the NEBT team has worked hard to minimize those impacts.

One of the largest infrastructure projects in the history of the District, the NEBT is more than 75 percent complete. The Tunnel Boring Machine, Chris, finished its work earlier this year, excavating a five-mile-long tunnel from just south of RFK Stadium to 6th and R Streets NW in the Shaw neighborhood. Although the construction of the tunnel is complete, DC Water still has much work to do to connect the new tunnel to the existing sewer system. That should take another year and a half.

“We have found the construction outreach team to be responsive to address our concerns,” said Chris Ferro, a new father who lives near the First Street NW construction site, one of 11 such sites along the alignment. “Some of the impacts have been very significant, but they always try to adjust their operations to address our concerns. Sometimes they have been able to modify their operations; sometimes it’s not possible. But they always are willing to work with us to find a solution,” he said.

While noise and lane closures for construction are common to most projects in the District, it is less common to construct large diameter drop shafts more than 100 feet deep in the street for extended periods. DC Water recognizes small, local businesses can be impacted by construction if a site is restricting parking and traffic access or is blocking the visibility of those businesses. Working with these business owners and the local Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners, Main Streets, and other community leaders, DC Water established a meal program to purchase lunches for staff from impacted restaurants and markets to show appreciation. These regularly occurring lunches provide needed business to those entities impacted by the construction and the District’s pandemic restrictions, as well as a much-needed morale boost for employees and contractors working hard to build the tunnel and diversion facilities under these unusual working conditions.

When complete, the NEBT will increase the capacity of the existing sewer system, lessening the chance of severe flooding in low-lying areas of the city along with improving the water quality of the Anacostia River.

To learn more about how the NEBT and the DC Water Clean Rivers Project are already benefitting District residents, visit dcwater.com/nebt.